Money To Burn, by Wiggia

No one can say that running a country is easy, though running it into the ground seems to be an easier option; a couple of examples to open up:

The first is from the DfT. A report supports spending £3 billion on the scheme below; having failed miserably in keeping the road standard high enough to actually drive on they take the easy option under the guise of healthier living.

In itself there is little to complain about. Sensible cycle ways if used are indeed safer than that offered now, but in most cases the current road structure cannot handle the extra lanes so the traffic becomes squeezed out.

That is also ok according to the same source as air quality is improved etc etc. There is never any question mark over the fact that business is hit by lower footfall as customers go online, firms close and jobs are lost, but if you can dress it all up with the catch-all climate change banner then you have a valid (in their eyes) excuse not to update the infrastructure so money is saved to be squandered on other schemes.

See (2)...

1. The report was critical of some areas of the Government’s approach to active travel and said it was not on track to achieve its key policy aim of increasing cycling and walking.

A DfT spokesperson said: “We are investing £3 billion up to 2025 to delivering safe and inclusive active travel infrastructure across all parts of the country which enables everyone to build healthier journeys into their lives.

2. "Britain’s green energy disaster should be an awful warning to Americans.

"The UK’s electricity prices are the highest since records began in 1920 and are now amongst the highest in all Europe. One reason for this is obvious: slightly less than half our electricity comes from gas-burning Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGTs) and gas now costs £90 per megawatt-hour (MWh), nearly five times higher than normal. CCGTs are cheap to build (around £650m per GW) and operate. In normal times they would generate electricity at a total cost of £40 per MWh. That’s now risen to nearly £150/MWh.

"As an example, the offshore wind farms Hornsea Two and Moray East were completed in 2022 with capital costs of £2.77 billion per GW and £2.75bn/GW, more than four times the cost of CCGT capacity. They’re expensive to maintain, which is not surprising since offshore windfarms have all their many generators mounted at the top of 200-metre tall masts far away from land. Estimates of maintenance costs are as high as £200m per GW installed, per annum. The nominal cost of offshore wind generation is £170/MWh – noticeably higher than that for CCGTs, even in these dire times of high gas prices.

"In 2021 the UK annual grid balancing costs reached £4.19 billion, £150 per household. For context, back in 1995 when we didn’t have much wind power the balancing cost for the grid was a mere £250 million per annum. A large, and growing, contribution to these costs is constraint management, as when a wind farm producing electricity which isn’t wanted – perhaps when it is windy in the middle of the night – is paid NOT to put that electricity into the grid. “

Remember that these systems need constantly running back up for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, so we are in actual fact paying for two systems. It would be with no storage for the renewables anywhere in sight and even then limited, simpler to run the fossil fuel and nuclear plants and save ourselves a fortune as well as be self sufficient; it is a question that is never asked.

There must be an awful lot of money being diverted into net zero schemes for all the basic wrongs to be ignored.

Out of curiosity I wonder why Lord Deben (formerly John Gummer), he of the mad cow baguette, lives in a listed manor house which cannot be upgraded with insulation to the standards he insists everyone else should attain. Surely he should sell and purchase an eco dwelling... just asking? He is of the ‘GB can lead the world in green technology’ so why not lead by example?

Thats Different Not The Same GIFfrom Thats Different GIFs

“The most absurd and insane thing about the whole green movement is that they believe humans can control the Earth's climate by micro-adjusting a 0.04% trace gas.”

And why is it that anyone who has a contrary position on CC even if qualified is either ignored ridiculed? …

Geologist, Professor Ian Plimer, utterly demolishes the human-induced "climate emergency" fairy tale in three and a half minutes: 

"[Six of the six] great ice ages started when we had more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than now. We have 0.04% of that gas in the atmosphere... Well that means nothing to me, because the atmosphere has changed in its carbon dioxide content from over 20% to now, which is really low in geological time. If we halved it, all plant life would die, and animals would die."

https://twitter.com/i/status/1676156584169205760

It is interesting seeing how many of the Just Stop Oil protesters are of the non-working or privileged class. Many have been outed, the latest being the young man carried off the pitch at Lord's: he is the son of a millionaire who in turn owns an investment company that backs green ‘opportunities’.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12247059/Student-21-carried-Jonny-Bairstow-Just-Stop-Oils-protest-grew-5-2m-house.html

We suffered ‘nudge’ units, an idea we can thank David ‘I’m not a quitter’ Cameron for during Covid and still they exist despite being sold off to a charity. Quite how a government propaganda unit can become charitable is another subject!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/13/downing-streets-controversial-nudge-unit-accused-exploiting/

David Halpern, author of the highly praised Hidden Wealth of Nations, has argued that a society of trustworthy citizens is a platform for economic growth and individual wellbeing.

And so the elites now think they have a way of controlling the masses, how very Orwellian of them. Hard to believe this nation leads the world in population thought control; China must be very envious.

In truth nothing surprises anymore. Daily we get NHS missives on new drugs and treatments that will save lives; the fact the majority are not able to see a doctor makes all this pointless, and should they actually make it to the treatment phase there are no beds for them in hospitals, well not until they have figured a means to get rid of the elderly bed blockers - having been subject to recent efforts to expunge myself so as to not be a burden on the State I can speak with some authority in that area.

Perhaps it is owing to lack of housing, which is only created by the huge numbers of immigrants coming into the country; after all we would not need these housing estates for the indigenous population as it is static in growth.

And ditto with all our other clapped-out infrastructure: energy production, roads, they will solve that by making it too expensive and too inconvenient for the masses to drive, all other transport apart from flying which naturally they also view as ‘unnecessary’ and harmful to the environment will also become too expensive as recent flight fares to holiday destinations are proving.

Water companies, which I wrote about some while back are living up to the facts I wrote about: suddenly everyone is noticing that water shortages in the country can only be averted by spending ever more of taxpayers' money despite the fact they were all privatised.

All this is small beer compared with the elephant in the room: climate change. Endless experts, remember them during Covid?, are telling us the tipping point is nearly upon us and after that we all fry, though even if true we will still be expected to shell out what we have left in a futile Canute moment.

Only thirty years ago we were told, no it was insisted, we were entering a mini ice age; experts?

The only thing for sure is that if Mother Earth is going through one of its cycles of extreme weather as it has done since since conception, there is bugger all we can do about it. You may all remember when the world sky turned dark pink when Mount St Helen's blew up: there was nothing they could do to stop that and we are due more of the same.

It is only 11,700 years since the end of the ice age, we are still coming out of it. This is just a blink of the eye in the evolution of Earth, yet somehow EVs are going to make a difference; the only difference is that there will not be enough electricity to power them all and all the other electric ‘improvements’.

WEEKENDER: The water company scam, by Wiggia

Perhaps water should be charged as to area that needs to covered, just a thought…………..

 

There is no doubt that the privatisation of utilities has had mixed results, some such as telecoms have had a plus in most areas of supply and enjoy a degree of real competition.

Others not so much. The water companies which are monopolies have used their trading position to tread water (sigh) ever since they took over.

We had a vivid example a few years ago here with Anglia Water who saw the way forward as a reason to further fleece the customer. A survey was sent to all paying customers on how they would ‘prefer’ to pay for a modernisation plan, this from a well funded private company. I always believed that private companies would spend money on updating, modernising, expanding to then attract private finance, but not Anglian Water who provide the plan and want all customers to fund the ongoing works. The attitude of the survey was one of no modernisation without pay, not that this would have stopped price rises anyway.

Anglian water is fortunate in that it relies mainly on aquifers for the supply and even in dry years in a dry area escapes hose pipe bans and restrictions most of the time. This doesn’t stop them on their crusade to tell us how to use less water, endless emails give that information.

All this is to save the water company from doing its job: to supply fresh water as needed to an area with a growing population. No new storage facilities are being built or have been built since they took over.

The government has announced we need to save 20% of water by 2038; one has to ask why. It can only be because of the necessity to spend large sums on an industry notorious for not spending what it should. Why the government should back all this under a nefarious 25 year environment plan is a mystery.

Or is it? With an extra 400,000 immigrants per year the demand for water as with everything else inexorably rises. Once again years of neglect in infrastructure mean governments have dug a huge hole for themselves after the profligate covid period; we didn’t have the cash before covid, and now... !

If you take leakage into account, which should be an ongoing maintenance item, yet has become a permanently neglected problem, there would be currently no need to update water storage for some years. Endless neglect has seen leakage become a major problem nationally as old pipe infrastructure has reached way beyond its life expectancy and fails now on a regular basis.

Not only does the pipe fail but the road has to be dug up. A road parallel to us has been dug up at least three times in the last five years because of leaks and a substandard surface installed on what was a new pavement!

Wasn't it this government that decreed all local authorities should be informed of future utilities works so as to stop this constant digging up of newly laid roads and pavements? It seems like that has joined the long list of words and no deeds.

The current eco movement has its teeth into everything at the moment and water companies are not alone in band wagon jumping when it suits. Telling customers to cut back on usage and giving ‘advice’ has now had the inevitable threat of withdrawal of modern installations - dual flush toilets, which I always assumed were to save water are one, though in fairness experience shows they don’t: evidently they leak, and should be banned, though they don’t leak nearly as much as the supply mains!

Also power showers: I have had a power shower for years and if used sensibly they use less water than standard showers. I certainly spend a lot less time under a power shower than a standard one, but really I don’t care, these are devices of the modern age. The problem is not them but the supply companies who have failed to keep a decent standard of maintenance and an almost complete lack of future infrastructure needed with our increasing population, though why it is increasing is a separate matter.

To put it briefly, instead of managing resources either by building more reservoirs or by reducing immigration they want to reduce our quality of life and make us pay more for the privilege.

One final comment: water meters are still not compulsory other than for new builds. Why one section of the public should be forced to pay for water at a given rate and another use as much as they like is a mystery, I would not have a water meter from choice, the myth that they save you money was a statement to get people to change. Anyone who has had a water meter for any length of time and has looked at the differential between the cost of the actual water used and sewage removed will have noticed that the sewage component has become larger than the water amount without any explanation;  here, it used to be roughly two thirds of the water element of the bill.

Once again we are being taken to the cleaners.

An Everyday Tale of Online Banking, by Wiggia

This was one of those moments which did not come to light until I returned home and tried to start normal procedures in my life after a spell of oblivion, it transpired that various updates re banking, shopping, Google and other sites had updated their log on procedures and in the case of banks two had actually frozen my account making access unless I updated all the info and supplied new paswords and security information.

All well and good in this scam ridden world of internet shopping/banking, except my main bank account has now become completely unobtainable.

It’s catch-22 gone mad.

Every other site has with much time and effort been returned to its former self as regards usability, though even there the jumping through hoops necessary to get things moving again has been considerable as there is no doubt that the procedures are made more difficult every time there is a reason to upgrade the system; this is not for the customer's benefit.

Nowhere is that more obvious than with the banks. In a nutshell I have been trying to access my online account for six weeks! My mobile app follows the same course, no entry without a new password which cannot be obtained because the system stops it.

Apart from endless attempts to rectify the problem resulting in amongst other things a greyed-out final box that would allow me access, I have also had various attempts at circumnavigating the system; all of which ended up with the same result: no go, whether online or on mobile.

My phone calls have resulted in an inordinate amount of time explaining the situation, endless security questions which all end with a question of what transactions on what dates after the date given I can recall - obviously without access to my statement which I don’t have I can’t answer that so I am effectively blocked from further progress.

Add to that being cut off on two occasions after 30 minutes on the phone and you have a perfect lock out.

Being told I will have to go to the nearest branch, there are only two left in the city five miles away, with photo ID does not thrill me, especially as I cannot walk at the moment apart from room to room and cannot drive yet, and my wife does not drive any more either. None of this was because of actions on my part; as I have statements only available online I have no idea of my current position re available money.

It is easy for the banks, and they are all the same, so changing my account would not achieve anything other than making me feel better. This has been getting worse for some years. The real problem is the security the banks have is insufficient for the task so more security is asked for and this is put on the customer with layers of security questions so the problem becomes that of the customer; it is cheaper for the banks and odious for the customer.

There must be an awful lot of bank customers who are totally bemused by all this and the lack of branches just makes the whole process more annoying or as in my case beyond the pale.

My answer is to go back to telephone banking and paper statements, but I still have the same initial hurdles to negotiate before that can be achieved!

WEEKENDER: NHS hospitals and the Four Horsemen, by Wiggia

It is over four months since I last had a piece up on Broad Oak Magazine, and looking back I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to scribble something again.

Time has passed so quickly during the period from the end October last year, it is as though someone has taken a slice of time away from my life and in many ways they have.

A brief resume of events: at the end of October I came in from working in my garden complaining of feeling unwell. My wife suggested I go and lie down for a while as I looked rough, this I did and promptly passed out.

The next six weeks or so had no meaning for me as I was in a coma for nearly three weeks and what followed was just a blur.

It transpires I had pressure on the brain which was operated on and just as they finished another problem, a bleed, was discovered so they went in again. No sooner had they finished with all that then it was discovered, I have no idea how, that there was serious infection of the bowel; there was a gruesome side line to what was a difficult operation that I won't disclose here and during all this it was declared I had Covid: full house!

It was fortunate for me that I was out of it during this period, and little was revealed in the early days afterwards, which was just as well as I started to have delusions. I also became quite emotional which really is not me in a normal life; waking in the night to discover I had been crying for hours was a whole new experience and just added to the general feeling that the visions were real and not the result of what had happened to me, even to the extent I was asking why my mother had not visited me; as was pointed out I had buried my mother some years before, yet my visions told me otherwise, it was an unnerving experience but slowly I came through all this and started the road to recovery.

Strangely only one vision remained with me from those early days in a coma and that was the four horsemen of the apocalypse lined up at the foot of my bed, and however fanciful it appears now it was very real at the time. Maybe it was a glimpse of the other side, or maybe it was as most would say just a dream, a coincidence, I will never know.

I was initially in Addenbrooke's hospital Cambridge, though I remember nothing of that time. I started to come round when moved to the N&N in Norwich where the slow recovery started and finished in a rehab cottage hospital a few miles south of Norwich.

Looking back on my lengthy stay I have to say that 95% of the staff were brilliant, even the land whales - who it has to be said numerically seem too large a number by far - were in no way impeded whilst doing their job. On the downside some of the foreign assistants brought in to fill the gaps were deficient, with very basic levels of knowledge, and many were unintelligible.

Speaking to someone else who has just had a long and difficult time in hospital, it appears this is common; as she said, don’t have any searching questions for the night shift where most of the helpers (?) who look like nurses are, but really are not.

There is no doubt that management are pushing for maximum capacity: single rooms become doubles as an example. Much that is coming from the top is purely number crunching and has little to do with patients' well-being.

One of the few positives to come from all this is the fact my drinking of alcohol is still allowed, not that I am indulging presently; the thought of having to sell my cellar, such as it is, would probably have finished me!

I am currently waiting for a report from my surgeon on whether I should continue to take my anti-coagulation tablets. They have been necessary since I had serious blood clotting around five years ago, obviously they do not aid the brain bleed and have been suspended. It remains to be seen after another brain scan if I go back on them having had them withdrawn, it seems like a case of buggered either way, but what do I know.

And I am still waiting for a reply!

The NHS is rightly castigated for its food. The main hospital lived up to the to the image of reheated items that had gone stone cold again. A few dishes saved what was an almost total disaster, but anything with mash, pasta, mince, was ghastly, cooked vegetables arrived either stone cold, dry, tasteless and mostly all three; a raw cold uncooked macaroni cheese said it all.

On the other hand the rehab hospital had food and a menu one would look forward to choosing from; a different supplier was the difference, resulting in a chalk and cheese situation: decent tea and seconds if one smiled nicely.

Now back home I face the long haul to get back on my feet and start to live a normal life. My first aim is to learn to walk again and get outside; it is difficult to believe the deterioration that takes place when one is confined to a sick bed. The first time the physio asked me to sit on the side of the bed and with a frame and try to stand was unnerving, it was as though my legs did not exist, and although hugely improved it is proving to be a slow road back.

Falling is my biggest fear, as the total lack of strength in the body means, as I have discovered, one gets out of balance and just keeps falling, as has happened a couple of times. My protection of the head was the foremost thought for obvious reasons.

So despite all I am still here, though another episode like this last one is not something I would be likely to survive.

WEEKENDER: It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world 2 - by Wiggia

My lack of items in the last two weeks is attributed to a combination of Windows update and Firefox going potty. One or the other, or maybe both, I will never know, has removed access to files, stopped my ability to download anything, and if by nefarious means I did manage to download a program or replacement I was not able to install it, so at great cost I have a new computer. The other one was old if still working, so I am up and running? Again.

So much passes through as news these days that keeping up becomes an Olympic sport, and the current government, if that term can still be used, have exceeded all expectations in the ridiculous and stupid category; if there were gold medals in those categories there would be a run on the yellow stuff, there is simply not enough to go round. So I wont go over ground that is constantly shifting - sink hole, anyone? - but will just make a small comment on the Conservative party's choice of Chancellor (or is it PM by proxy?) in his first speech on the tax u-turns.

One he didn’t u-turn on was the stamp duty reduction; can’t upset the parties biggest donors can we, have to keep house prices up and any cost so the DM can still add to any story that x was guilty but can be seen here in leafy ***** standing outside his 5 bedroomed detached Victorian Villa currently worth 2 zillion pounds.

They never learn. After the disastrous Ponzi scheme that resulted in the 2008 crash, banks governments lenders still want to lend to those cannot pay. Already those same lenders are revising their lending terms because of interest rate rises; well well well there’s a surprise, they have used years of low interest rates to promote house buying in the belief they would never rise again, or they didn’t care. What was normal in years gone by is now unthinkable but happening anyway.

House purchase has become like governments, reliant on low or zero interest rates. Unlimited fiat money can only ever be paid for with low interest rates, but inflation has blown that out of the water and we now have debt servicing out of control.

They still don’t get it. This morning a government spokesman, MP, was talking about the imminent drop in house prices as a bad thing! As if the constant above inflation rate of house prices has been a good thing. It won’t be interest rate rises that will lead to repossessions this time, that currently is well below those days of 16%, but a combination of energy rises and general cost of living as well will do it.

On the other hand government policies have denied those who saved all their lives of any return on said savings coupled with the lowest state pension in Europe, and again under threat of removal of the ‘promised ‘ triple lock; this sector has been to put it crudely crapped on from a great height.

Hunt, where did he come from? His failure as health minister and three failed businesses hardly makes him an obvious choice for Chancellor at this or any other time. He stated that ‘the public would not mind paying extra tax to fund the NHS’; oh yes they would, not a penny more without root and branch reform first.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/jeremy-hunt-tory-leadership-boris-johnson-nhs-junior-doctors/

On the other hand it is comforting to know the IMF will be in safe hands next year. I can’t think of a better person to run it coming as she does from one of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world; along with Saudi Arabia heading up the UN's human rights committee it is a win-win for us all.

Currently we pay for an NHS that in many areas is non existent with no sign of anytime soon if ever of improving; plus many including my good self have had to pay again, as three years from diagnosis to operation for a new hip would have seen me in a wheelchair long before I went under the knife. Seven million on the waiting list and rising and a care home crisis beyond the pale with the government decision to sack 40,000 care home staff who refused the jab - a major hurdle to overcome if it ever can be. Oh wait, all these fit young asylum seekers we are told by the various charities are ready to work rather that laze around in five star hotels will plug the gap, all is well again.

In the case of the sacked care home staff, no one has been able to explain why (or not wanted to) the nurses and others in the NHS got a last minute reprieve from the same fate; or were the care home staff considered fodder for the ideology of the vaccines vis a vis the mainstream staff who were ready to sue?

It is interesting in a morose way to ask why we have such difficulty either returning these illegal, and they are so by definition, migrants, and our seeming inability to refuse them asylum despite so many destroying their documents which leaves them presumably stateless with no country to return them to. You can’t be fleeing from torture, war and threat of murder if you won’t say where you have come from, or is that naive?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-cant-britain-control-migration-3pwmrkhkm

As Mark Steyn so succinctly puts it ‘we live in a blizzard of lies’ whether it be the efficacy of masks,  lock downs or so called vaccines or the real reason we cannot say no to the huge numbers that have come to this country: 10 million officially, in the last twenty years.

Mind you it should help the travel trade as long as flying is still permitted, as a staycation will soon be impossible with the hotels full of migrants, and now we are, or Serco is on our behalf, leasing properties to put up the same; that should help those on the council house waiting lists.

Coming our way soon………..

                                                                                                                                                                            

It really is a growth business now, £2.2 billion of tax payers money to Serco alone. These contracts have guaranteed built in 5k maintenance element to them which makes them attractive to landlords, nowhere else would they get contracts like these.

Outside of all this it was good of Let's Go Brandon, who managed in his muddled way whilst eating an ice cream, easily digestible hospital food for the infirm, to tell us our tax plans are not good. His of course are marvellous as is the USA's debt mountain; good to know though we are all in it together, or that is what we are told!

A final thought from the comments…

‘Just step back a moment and consider that the Conservative Party have, in the past week, fired a Chancellor for wanting to cut taxes and a Home Secretary for wanting to cut immigration.‘

Good job we don’t have a Foreign Secretary who wants to cut aid…

WEEKENDER: The Housing Market, by Wiggia

The news that interest rates are going up has spooked the housing market. In truth it never takes much to do that as much of the property wealth accumulated is built on not-so-firm foundations, but has become over the years the base of much that the ordinary working man has accumulated in capital assets, in effect replacing ever poorer pension returns. 

It suits the powers that be and the building industry to keep kicking the can down the road as long as possible as a collapse will end whatever government is in power and in the case of the Conservatives take away their biggest donors all in one hit. 

So almost since I can remember there have been endless boosters and financial support mechanisms invented to keep the train on the rails, and to a degree very successful it has been, but at a cost. 

The days of thrift have been replaced by ever increasing borrowing. How did we arrive at this? If we go back to the time when we purchased our first house, the procedure was quite simple: you approached a building society, told them what you earned, they told you on that basis what you could borrow, and you would open an account with them and prove you could repay the agreed amount by saving with them for two years. You knew where you stood financially as interest rates were pretty static and even if your wife had a decent job that would only give you a better chance of securing a mortgage, it would not increase the amount you could borrow. The borrowing at that time 1967 was two and a half times earnings; we saved for the two year period and purchased our first house. 

How times have changed; and they started to change in the Seventies with larger multiples of earnings partly to boost the mid seventies housing stagnation, but as with all fixes they became the permanent model. This multiple earnings rate continued to increase with every hiccup that the housing market encountered, up to the disaster of ‘89 when we had the only real slump in house prices along with borrowing rates that meant negative equity became a reality. One would have thought that period would have had a return-to-reality effect on the market, but no, by now we were well into the BMW on the drive period when young couples were not satisfied with just getting a house, they wanted the instant nice car and all the rooms fitted out and no real halt to their lifestyle outside of this. Who can blame them, when schemes such as low deposits and fixed low interest rates for a number of years made it all possible?

Meanwhile the multiple years earnings ratio continued to rise, one’s partners earnings added to the total and today six or seven times annual earnings to borrowing ratio is not unusual. Add to that the low interest rates that have become the norm since 2008 and many would think this is housebuying Nirvana with no end. 

The reality is somewhat different. With the rise in rates now happening the warning signs are out for a correction in prices. What is guaranteed is that the Conservative party in particular, who rely for a large portion of their votes on the house owner sector, will do all they can to stop the collapse happening; what is left that they can salvage from the magic money tree has yet to be announced or provided. 

The overlying problem with the housing market is that years of gifting first time buyers schemes to get them to buy houses has simply pushed up prices, in effect creating a Ponzi scheme. Every time easier money is provided prices go up as sellers know more money is available; the same with the lower deposits that free up more buyer'  money and other similar schemes. It has happened every time these schemes or fixed rates or as now ‘lifetime mortgages’ have been introduced. Surely we have run out of incentives that only push up prices, yet while whoever is in power facilitates all these measures prices will continue to rise. 

No one wants a housing crash. We saw the damage in the late eighties / early nineties when as an aside few could sell their houses because so many were tied down to mortgages they could not or barely afford for properties that had lost a fair chunk of their value. 

Having said that there was no help at that time yet already we hear cries of ‘the government must do something’; not really the government but the taxpayer of course. 

With many mortgage offers being withdrawn and interest rates reaching around 6% one could say the market is returning to something like normal, the sort of level that prevailed for years before 2008. Surely that, with a corresponding drop in house prices, can only be a good thing. 

Many will say this is the free market in action, but that would be being economical with the truth as governments have a vested interest in keeping the housing market going along nicely even at the ridiculous current prices. They take a lot of money from transactions for doing absolutely nothing, display faux concern about getting everyone on the housing ladder and at the same time placate the building industry who donate so much to the Party. 

You will also note the government's efforts to get houses built and sold does not include raising the build quality to a standard enjoyed elsewhere in Europe, or the size of the properties built, or the dire architecture. That I have covered in previous articles, yet it is part of the overall poor picture of where the housing market has ended. Perhaps at the very least price stagnation for a prolonged period would be the easiest way to bring back some common sense to the whole sector. 

The last couple of years have been a fantasy land with the housing market seemingly in another world to everything else. The pent up demand created by Covid ran its course long ago or it should have, but the signs are there. Looking locally, houses are no longer selling as fast as they were put up for sale, in fact many are sticking and 'reduced' signs have reappeared. Maybe, just maybe, this is a sign that some sanity is coming back to the market along with the withdrawal of those fixed low rate mortgages. 

Those who say the housing market has only ever gone up have obviously not lived long enough to remember ‘75 and ‘89 ‘90. Yes it did all recover but many got their fingers burnt big-time then. Governments need to stay out of the game and lenders need to stop being so greedy - but will they?

WEEKENDER: Hits the Ground Running? by Wiggia

                                                           

This is the new Health Secretary, I have never cared about what someone looks like or their ’charisma’; my only concern is that they do the job they are paid for. In the case of the new Health Secretary I already have doubts, not because of the above photo but simply because she has no knowledge of the NHS and is a ‘friend' of the PM; that alone suggests nepotism and lack of merit in getting the job. If I am proved wrong, then good.

Most of us know what is wrong with the NHS; we have to put up with its shortcomings on an almost daily basis.

Sadly as is the case with all newly appointed officials that want to appear to hit the ground running, though in this case that conjures images I won't go into, n announcement is made re GPs and appointments:                                                                                                                                                                              

The woman is deluded if she thinks making such a statement will make the slightest difference to our everyday experiences.

And within minutes of the announcement representatives of GPs were saying it is impossible to implement the pledge. Today in the Times a GP makes a claim that GPs are tired with workload they are having to support; perhaps she should put her head round the door of our surgery and see if she can find more than two GPs on the premises, out of eight, on any working day. Methinks they do protest to much.

But it gives an example of what any health secretary is up against: radical reform is needed but won't come from statements such as the one above.

This is no different to the announcement by the then health secretary under Cameron who declared we would all have choice over the GPs and surgeries we can go to, the result of which was an actual decline in all choices. Still, the revolving door of opportunity keeps these people from ever having to account for their proclamations.

The intention as with this one is to buy time, to be seen to be doing something, when the truth is that only a radical change in the GP set up will change anything.

As we pay them with our taxes there should be a revision of their contract. We don’t pay them to choose to work one day a week for the same salary as many now are, and the students who are currently studying and stating they have no intention of working more than three days should be told that they work five days a week for say ten years in the NHS, as again the taxpayer has paid for their tuition and demand a Quid pro quo in return.

At this moment in time we pay and receive a third world service at best in return; in a sane world that should not be allowed to continue.

I don’t even have to go into the reasons why the statement is just that, words. If you can’t even get someone to answer the phone at the surgery how are you going to enforce your ‘rights’? Time for someone serious to take charge of the NHS and all who sail in her.

At the same time Rosie Cooper MP for West Lancashire has stood down from being the MP for that constituency at the age of 72, to take the lucrative position as the Chair of Mersey Trust at a time in life most have retired. This woman has only become an MP after five attempts with three different parties? And despite some political alliances with health matters has never run anything of substance.

Her reason for changing careers is said to be because of death threats, but it took this offer a couple of years and much ‘soul searching’ to jump ship. It seems the revolving door is still revolving. Is this really the best they could come up with? Nothing changes, especially within the NHS or the political establishment.

WEEKENDER: Overkill, the Media Circus, by Wiggia

Like the majority of the population I will be watching the pageantry surrounding the death and burial of Queen Elizabeth 11. Not only was she a remarkable woman in the role she played for seventy years, but in many ways her going is a final break with the past glories of this nation, it will not be and cannot be repeated.

Her funeral will be an event we do better than any other nation on this earth. Previous ones such as Churchill’s, still just within living memory, are examples of that, as was the Queen's coronation which as a child I witnessed; historic events that stay in the mind of those who witness them for the rest of their lives, I have no doubt that next Monday will be no different.

In many ways considering the appalling state we and the west are now in, it is as if a full stop has been imposed on an era that not only had the Queen reigning over us as a figurehead reminding us of past greatness but also her passing signifies the end of a nation of Empire and our standing in the world. Much of that had already gone yet the presence of the Queen softened the decline that we  see all around us. I am sure she was aware of the fact but at least she will not have to see the end product.

All that for those that care is common knowledge.

What we are witnessing at this moment in time is the total overkill by the media in the endless blanket coverage of all items to do with the death of our monarch. Past similar events did not have social media or umpteen TV channels to record everything or relay endless interviews with people of no interest and little consequence, but I write this with a week to go and already TV channels are repeating items that have already been flogged to death.

The initial silence, promoted straight away by David Starkey, over the status and more of the Harry and Megan saga that is a threat to the main focus of this funeral lasted hardly as long as his request. Analysis of one appearance in public and an impending book soon to be published gets more and more airtime when the whole issue should be parked till after the funeral.

GB news as an example, has abandoned everything unless there is a connection to the Queen's death. We are being reduced to examining the minutiae of items for the sake of it, simply to fill air time. The presenters will have been wearing black so long that afterwards we will be finding it difficult to imagine them dressed in any other way.

Even someone like the aforementioned David Starkey who I would in normal circumstances gladly watch and listen to even if he was reading the weather forecast, is being used to endlessly plug gaps in airtime to the point of being tedious.

The never ending interrogation of the Sussexes, and will the brothers ever speak to one another again, has reached the stage when 'body language experts', behavioural psychologists and others are being used to continue the examination of their behaviour, when the only obvious fact is Kate looks like she could kill Megan, and she may or may not have reason, but that is all.

In some ways all this should be expected. It is now the way of the world: tittle tattle. Social media has reduced events to endless sound bites. Fortunately despite all this the main event won’t (we hope) be diminished.

This type of presentation has been expanding for some years. The introduction has became a six part play: no longer do you get a half hour summary in the run up to the Cup Final, you get a whole morning where everyone from the managers to the beverage providers is asked for an opinion and then asked again.

The public can no longer be allowed to watch and form their own opinion. It is the media equivalent of the ‘nudge’ unit forever pushing other opinions in our direction to the exclusion of all else.

Sadly the public have assimilated all this and over time have become the putty in it all, never questioning whether this the way forward is the right way: it is almost as though they prefer the media and the government to determine the amount of emotion that should be displayed.

The Diana effect has become the norm and is used as a template.

And the media milk it and encourage it with another of those overused phrases that appear at times like this, ‘the outpouring of grief was self evident‘ said x reporter on the ground, despite no real evidence of it. Whatever happened to the stoic approach that was the norm? Today we are encouraged by those same TV experts on air to show one's emotions as if in a competition; we are as one commenter said, ‘in a world of emotional incontinence’.

Fortunately one doesn’t have to sit there for eighteen hours a day listening and viewing padded-out time-filling nonsense, all one has to do is view the main event as that is all you will remember; judicious use of the off button will do wonders for your sanity.

START THE WEEK: Funny Old World, by Wiggia

 Macron says the days of abundance are over…………his Marie Antoinette moment…..

I doubt that he will along with our own, expenses paid energy bills elite, suffer from any lack of abundance.

Not that there is anything new in his statement……

Naturally ‘abundance in the eye of the beholder, it appears that Obama has dashed for gas before the winter arrives with the installation of a 2500 gallon propane gas tank that will if necessary see him through the winter at his pad in Martha’s Vineyard. It’s only fair that the proles should suffer for energy shortage while he pollutes the climate he is so passionate about.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-fossil-fuel-fan-obama-orders-2500-gallon-propane-storage-vacation-home

While we can all with hindsight write articles and make comments about current affairs, so much today has no need for hindsight as we have been saying certain things for years. This comment below has no hindsight involved, it is just about a departing PM who has turned out to be an almost total failure; even his much applauded 'got Brexit done' is a joke as we have subsequently discovered, leaving Northern Ireland in the clutches of the EU.

This was the comment about his last public speech after a pathetic ‘legacy’ tour? One of many on the same theme.

“Saving £10 per year would take 300 years to compensate for £3k increase in energy bills. BJ is so far removed from reality as to be considered insane. He can have no empathy with the working man, we are space aliens to him.”

Boris doesn’t obviously do maths, or much else come to that, as his £20 kettle has to be taken from the savings; and how long does a modern kettle last? Two years. Rresult: no gain at all. The Daily Star got it right for once with a front cover with 'Prat' on it.

No doubt Boris thinks this is a planet-saving piece of equipment as well…

 https://twitter.com/Nandospage/status/1565505096317796353

And before some clever Dick says the company site shows it can be charged in 2.5 hrs, that is with phase 3 electricity which a remote or new site will not have.

Another closet eco warrior is the unlikely Kevin MacCloud of Grand Designs fame. A, to me, strange article in the Times has him showing his credentials (ooh matron!) Despite years advocating, and rightly, the building of well insulated houses, he actually lives in a 500 year old farmhouse. Nothing wrong in that other than preaching about methods to save the planet with better insulation and renewables is a bit off the narrative if you live in a 500 year old farmhouse that is almost certainly listed and can’t be upgraded in any meaningful way. He then goes on to tell how he doesn’t shower, uses a basin of water and doesn’t flush his loo very often to save water; why?

He admits, despite prying into hundreds of properties in his TV program, that he won't let anyone look inside at his funny old world.

He has also installed a wood burner,  which for the greens is as near to a criminal act as one can admit to, only owning your own coal mine would top it. Living in the country is trotted out as an excuse for this; I have a wood burner and don’t feel any need to find excuses for it, even more so this winter coming.

And finally he is ‘incredibly envious of people who have built homes that export energy,' so why does he not follow his beliefs; or is he the same as all those Hollywood stars who preach about saving the planet but the restrictions they advocate do not apply to them?

As I say almost weekly, one could fill a book with the nonsense that is spouted on a daily basis now. The reverse ferret is in high demand as the ruling classes blame everyone else for the decades of wrong decisions, wrong thinking and downright incompetence.

An amusing finale is that annoying ex-MP Edwina Currie. Like a tic she can’t easily be got rid of, her belligerence is almost without parallel and here she has taken issue with Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert fame for using the word 'catastrophe' about our current energy crisis.

Apart from making a mountain out of a molehill and being a prat whilst doing so, the superannuated ex-MP then tells people how to improve their comfort using foil backing for radiators. On her pension she will not be concerned about energy costs; and to think she was once considered to be important in political circles!

WEEKENDER: Dumb Stupidity, by Wiggia

Donald Trump has been denigrated and called an idiot by those who want him removed from the face of the Earth, but he called this correctly along with much else.

It is often said we get the politicians we deserve. Recent events have proved that to be true, and the video below shows a classic example of a script reader clinging to the narrative, let them eat cake…

           https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1561370651809792001

This seems to have been a week of stupid promises, as potential leaders officials, think tanks, ministers and businessmen offer silly solutions to the energy crisis as a way of being seen to be doing something, It should be said that as they are responsible for the majority of the mess we are in after decades of denying practical ways forward, preferring be in awe to the great green god, they should come up with solutions, but all I see is back of a fag packet knee-jerk reaction to  problem of their own collective making.

Perhaps as they get energy allowances they are not that bothered about what happens to the plebs, but they should be careful, in times past this sort of situation resulted in heads on pikes across Westminster Bridge; not likely to happen in what has become a largely apathetic nation, but who knows?

Onward, such a hopeful name, a government think tank, has suggested a halving of stamp duty to those who would install a heat pump. You can tell this was made up over a couple of Mojitos on the terrace at Westminster as none of the obvious downsides are mentioned.  

The rebate is an incentive to those being’ hesitant about adopting new technologies’; no, people are declining the fitting of heat pumps because without a suitably insulated property and underfloor heating the are an expensive mistake.

Naturally net zero and its addicts trump any sensible proposals. As a former environment secretary said ‘Liz Truss ought to know the devastating consequences of failing to reach net zero.’Do these bubble dwellers ever stop to think that if we actually reach net zero, we won't, that it will not make one jot of difference in the scheme of things other than reduce our standard of living?

James Kirkup writes a scathing article in the Spectator about Liz Truss' and Rishi Sunak's dismissal of solar farms. There is nothing wrong with solar power, apart from the fact that no sun no power and the much vaunted storage ‘that will save our nation’ is still a far distant fairy story; and how much will we ever be able to store for those long dark winter months when the sun doesn’t shine?

Kirkup goes into great detail about how cheap solar power is. It really isn’t: as I have said before, no renewables are cheap if you have to have a parallel source of energy on stand by for those dark windless days. Until renewables can stand alone, why don’t we invest in an energy source that works and gives us independence, or is that too simple?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/sunak-and-truss-are-wrong-about-solar

Before the crisis, I received an email from a major energy supplier that claimed that all their energy was from renewables. They are not alone, several companies say the same. It is a blatant lie: no energy company can possibly have a choice in the source of their energy, they simply use a Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin certificate REGO to enable them to say such twaddle.  

https://www.renewableenergyhub.co.uk/blog/does-your-energy-provider-genuinely-supply-100-green-electricity/

It enables companies to claim they are 100% green when they actually only need to have 30% in the mix. Wherever they claim to get their energy from, in fact all companies get it from the national grid which cannot stream different sources of energy. These companies take people for fools and get away with it.

From the above link…

‘Both Ecotricity and Good Energy source enough renewable electricity to match their customers’ usage though this tends to mean that their costs are higher and as a result their tariffs are more expensive.‘

So Kirkup's claim that renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels falls at the first hurdle as the green consumer actually pays more and gets the same energy as everyone else

The energy companies have themselves come up with a plan to ‘help’ the public. Keith Anderson, boss of Scottish Power, wants to help by setting up a government-backed (i.e. taxpayer funded) deficit fund running to £100 billion. Other companies are backing him and you can see why as the self-serving plan is popular: it effectively underwrites their businesses takes away risk of bad debts and takes away any windfall tax extensions.

It involves freezing the cap at £2000 for two years then covering the gap between the cap and the wholesale price of gas with the deficit fund. The repayment would be spread over ten to fifteen years with a mix of energy bills and taxation.

I am sure there is a better way of ‘helping’ those struggling with bills than this and it doesn’t involve giving ‘insurance’ to energy companies; again, the public are being taken for stupid.

Meanwhile Rishi Sunak, hoping to become PM, has issued this statement about how the Covid period was mishandled:

“This is the problem… If you empower all these independent people, you’re screwed… We shouldn’t have empowered the scientists in the way we did.” 

He concludes that had we not done so, and had we acknowledged trade-offs from the beginning 

“... we could be in a very different place… it could have been shorter. Different. Quicker. There were often times the officials would do a “pre-meeting”, decide what they wanted to push through, then ram it through in the main meeting with the PM/ministers.”

This process wasn’t helped when, on occasion, ministers would go into the key Covid meeting and be handed a set of 100 papers by officials, with no chance of being able to digest them before a decision was taken....

“Mr Sunak recalled the moment when Prof Neil Ferguson and his team at Imperial College London presented their Report 9, which claimed Covid casualties could reach 500,000 if no action was taken but would be reduced to 20,000 with a lockdown.”

As wriggle-free statements go it is quite good, but what it actually says they blindly took the path laid out for them by ‘experts.’ Not only have experts prospered on their misleading of the nation, but those who govern us just sat on their arses and signed anything put in front of them without any scrutiny. Now he wants us to believe it was none of their fault.

Why was Ferguson even invited to give his opinion? His track record in modelling was there for all to see. You, Rishi, along with others were a minister at the time but you failed to raise any alarms or resign in protest; nor did anyone else for that matter, so it’s bit late now.

Boris has no exit plan so has gone on holiday and laid low until he sees a further opportunity to gloss over his multiple failures and visits Ukraine again, promising them almost anything and telling the people back home they will have to ‘suck it up’ re energy prices as the Ukraine is more important than your granny dying of hyperthermia this winter.

Strange words from a Prime Minister whose prime concern should be his nation, his borders, and most importantly the safeguarding of his people, but when you are seeking a life beyond Westminster and a legacy all that goes out of the window.

Of course, Boris doesn’t pay any energy bills and as long as he stays an MP he can claim on expenses, while a growing number of people at the bottom of the pile will not be able to turn on the heating.

His and previous governments have pandered to the green lobby and become evermore reliant on importing energy to cover the shortfalls when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun stays in, rather than build our own infrastructure and be secure, and now he wants us to suffer to save Ukraine. 

They take us for idiots and get away with it.

WEEKENDER: Tulip mania? by Wiggia

It was while browsing a nursery catalogue and observing how plants of all types have gone up in price alongside everything else as a result of last two years in lockdown, and now add on the rising energy costs, that an article came up that linked with something I saw in one nursery listing.

The listing was one of a specialist in tropical plants and rarities. Some of the prices astounded me and at first I thought they were just attempting to scam the public on the back of those rare plants, but I was wrong.

A bit of digging into other specialists in this field revealed equally staggering prices, I found it difficult to believe anyone would actually pay for what in most cases were not especially rare plants, more versions of fairly common houseplants, but again I was wrong.

Twice before plants have actually traded at prices that would have got them into the FTSE 100 and in the case of Tulip Mania became more valuable than currency, such was the demand for rare bulbs as they became a trading commodity.

It started in the 1500s when the Dutch entered their ‘Golden Period.’ The first bulbs came from the Ottoman Empire in 1557  and first appeared in Vienna. This was the period when vegetables such as potato, pepper, tomato were first appearing here also. From Vienna they made their way to other capitols including Amsterdam.

The rise of tulips as a status symbol coincided with the Dutch rise in commerce as with the east India trade routes.

It was the colour breaks, unknown in European flowers at the time, that caused the interest. As with all plants or nearly all, variegation is caused by virus and crossing infected bulbs started to produce what at the time were amazing flowers.

The real trading mania started in around  this period. From Wiki…

“Thus the Dutch, who developed many of the techniques of modern finance, created a market for tulip bulbs, which were durable goods. Short selling was banned by an edict of 1610, which was reiterated or strengthened in 1621 and 1630, and again in 1636. Short sellers were not prosecuted under these edicts, but futures contracts were deemed unenforceable, so traders could repudiate deals if faced with a loss."

And here…

“Tulip mania reached its peak during the winter of 1636–37, when contracts were changing hands five times. No deliveries were ever made to fulfill any of these contracts, because in February 1637, tulip bulb contract prices collapsed abruptly and the trade of tulips ground to a halt."

It was probably the first occasion in more modern times, equivalent to the economic bubble bursting in 1720 when the South Sea Company failed. The South Sea Bubble is a classic case of a company building on non existent trade and failing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company

And then we had the Orchid trade that emulated the tulip one in a smaller way, when the rarity of plants demanded sky high prices only for the market to collapse again.

There is a very good book The Orchid King which traces the life of Frederick Sander whose name became synonymous with many orchid varieties. I inherited it from my grandfather who was a keen gardener and orchid grower.

In the early 1900s the craze for orchids reached its peak with rare bulbs fetching enormous figures, rare bulbs fetching £1,500 pounds. These would be split by the owners and grown on to sold at a profit down the line, but it was the beginning of the end. Sander was a classic case of a man with a passion, and a business brain who became the king of his field with a nursery in St Albans and a huge, for the time, production facility in Bruges, Belgium; but people no longer wanted to pay the prices asked and profits dwindled. It was a slow sad decline and the Second World War finished it off as a going concern with Bruges lost and no new species coming from the east to tickle the buyer's fancy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Frederick_Conrad_Sander

So I was naturally surprised to come across this current fad for rare tropical plants fetching very high prices…

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/pots-of-gold-the-world-s-most-expensive-house-plants

This like the previous trends in plants is fuelled by a desire to own a rare plant and be prepared to pay over the top for it. The business behind this is small compared to the previous tulip and orchid fads, yet is based on the same desire as the tulip mania in that most of it is reliant on virus infected plants producing rare leaf colourings or contrasting patterns.

In most cases from what I have seen very few of the plants can compare with the rarity of found species from the previous bonanzas. A cheese plant whatever the leaf is still a cheese plant but who am I to say what people spend their money on? Strangely the article gives the Covid virus as a reason for people to up their game in buying these plants; in the same way that they purchased pets and paid silly sums, they may come to regret the purchase as the post virus era is now leading us into a recession and a cheese plant won't really have much credit.

As a final word, growing orchids is no longer the preserve of the avid gardener or expert. They provide amazing value as a house plant, being in flower often for months, with exquisite flowers and colours. Production techniques are such that today what were rare plants costing a year's wages can now be purchased for a few pounds. Supermarkets often have a good selection, and with a bit of love they will give years of pleasure; few houseplants come anywhere near.